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Abstract

In 2004, 60 diseases and conditions were nationally notifiable in Australia. States and Territories reported a total of 110,929 cases of communicable diseases to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS): an increase of 4 per cent on the number of notifications in 2003. In 2004, the most frequently notified diseases were sexually transmissible infections (46,762 cases; 42% of total notifications), gastrointestinal diseases (25,247 cases; 23% of total notifications) and bloodborne diseases (19, 191 cases; 17% of total notifications). There were 13,206 notifications of vaccine preventable diseases, 6 000 notifications of vectorborne diseases, 1,799 notifications of other bacterial infections (includes, legionellosis, leprosy, meningococcal infections and tuberculosis) and 8,787 notifications of zoonotic diseases.